Posted by Steve in Guest Post, weight loss tips | 25 Comments
7 Ways to Increase Your Metabolism
The never ending task of losing weight is daunting to so many people. You can feel as though, in spite of your best efforts, you can’t seem to shed the unwanted pounds.
One key to losing weight is to boost your metabolism.
People search for ways to boost their metabolism and some of them are rather unnatural or undesired, so it’s important to focus on the healthiest ways to do so. In order to boost your metabolism, you need to focus on a few important factors.
1. Weight Training: We all know that exercise is an important way to lose weight. However if you are looking to boost your metabolism for a longer term method to lose weight, you need to focus on weight training. Lifting weights helps to boost your muscle mass and this in turn burns more calories. The more muscle that you product, the higher your metabolism will get and the more weight you can drop. It’s that simple!
2. Eat More Protein: Yet again we see how focusing on building up your lean muscle helps to increase your metabolism. This time it has everything to do with eating the right foods, this time in the form of lean proteins. Eating protein will help your body to burn calories faster, keep you full longer, and ultimately increase your metabolism overall.
3. Drinking Lots of Ice Cold Water: As your body temperature tries to accommodate the ice cold water, it is burning calories in the process. This helps to burn calories and ultimately will increase your metabolism. Not only is water good for your health and your weight loss efforts, but it can play an important role in boosting your metabolism.
4. Fluctuate Your Calorie Intake: Rather than sticking with a set or limited number of calories each and every day, fluctuate the levels a bit. If you eat more calories one day and less the next, your body has to work to adjust. You don’t want to go for dramatic differences, but this minor modification can help to boost your metabolism.
5. Eat More Often: Rather than sitting down to three square meals a day, space out your eating. Eating smaller meals more frequently helps to boost your metabolism in the most natural way possible. This also keeps your blood sugar level up and helps your body to operate more efficiently.
6. Eating After a Workout: Your body is still working and burning calories even after you finish a grueling workout. This means that your metabolism is rather high and therefore makes an excellent time to eat. This means that your body will still be burning calories and help to boost your metabolism, even as you eat.
7. Eat a Well Balanced Diet: Try not to ignore any one food group as a well balanced diet will help to boost your metabolism. It’s important to include food choices from each food group such as lean protein, low fat dairy, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables to properly boost your metabolism.
Boosting your metabolism is one of the most effective ways to lose weight. By doing that in a healthy way—ways that are relatively painless, as the above all are—you also set the stage for not only increased metabolism and higher rates of calorie burn, but also for a lasting, well-managed diet and nutrition routine that will continue to do you good.
Mary Ward writes about various health care career topics, including how to choose among surgical technician courses.
If I might add.
Eating spicy food can help increase metabolism for a couple of hours.
Don’t take a cold shower after meal because it will lower your metabolism and thus the food that you just ate cannot be properly digested.
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Steve Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Good tips thanks Kareen, do you have any particular spicy foods in mind?
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I find it very difficult to excercise, low bordom threashold! I do find it easier to follows an exercise DVD or follow a simple exercise routine whilst watching the TV.
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Steve Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I’m finding it is all about habit and making it fun. If you are not looking forward to your workouts than you aren’t going to stick to them.
If you can’t find any interest in exercise routines or programs, put on your favorite music and just do some push ups, crunches, dips and squats. 4 easy quick exercises that you can do anywhere and get them “out of the way”
If you’re not willing to exercise than you are really limiting your chances for weight loss success. Food can only take you so far.
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Throwing in some high intensity cardio is a must here. Sprints and uphill running will get you burning fat real quick.
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Steve Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Absolutely, HIIT is a good way to get your heart rate up and burn off the fat. The best part is you can get twice (give or take) the results (calorie burn) in the same amount of time as steady pace exercises.
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You have some pretty good points here. Except for number 3. This is a very old myth that cold water increases your metabolism. If you drink warm water, you get the same effect and if you take room temprature, you still get the same effect. Other than that…it was great
.
I have a similar post if you want to read it here:
http://burnfatnbuildmuscle.blogspot.com/2008/11/if-you-are-already-taking-5-8-small.html
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would have to say that 2 is very good if you want to turn that fat into muscle. Especially eat a protein meal, or drink a protein shake after a workout. Keep this up for a at least a month and you’ll soon notice the difference.
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In your post you state “Lifting weights helps to boost your muscle mass and this in turn burns more calories.” This couldn’t be more true. People tend to forget this. Weight lifting is one of the best ways to kick your metabolism in to over drive.
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All 7 are needed and I believe high intensity cardio is a must also.
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This is a good 7 tips in increasing metabolism. In addition to this, we all can loose weight if we discipline ourselves to do regularly exercise and eat the right types of food.
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Consistency is KEY!
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participating in a sport and training for competition can create a competitive drive to acelerate your workouts
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There is too much emphasis on low fat. We’ve been eating low fat for decades and obesity is still increasing. It is not the answer. Try sticking to real and traditional foods. You’ll find that they are packed full of healthy fats. It’s the processed food market that is causing the problem and now they have a hold of the low fat market too.
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A great list for boosting metabolism. i would like to add interval training as an exceptional exercise for boosting metabolism. With that, your list is as complete as it gets.
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I agree. One sure thing is.. eating fruits at night will keep you stay fit and will probaby lose your weight. Avoiding too much Carbs will really help you lose the desired weight you want to lose. What do you think?
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Chemist Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:34 am
yes eating fruits is really good for our body. i follow my balanced diet given by my dietitian. Do not sleep directly after having dinner. Have some fruits at night before sleeping keeps us healthy and fit
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..very nice advice! and also, way one more thing is.. eat together with a person who eats a lot.. you will be more attracted to eat too. =) believe me
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I also believe that spicy food increases metabolism at least temporarily…
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Thanks for sharing. I just want to make addition for your opinion. to slim the waist will be essential to initiate a plan lose weight. But we must healthy weight loss.
To achieve this it is essential to follow a low calorie diet and increasing physical activity. There are different types of diets low in calories but has been found in several recent studies that any of them produces weight loss and fat similar. What matters is that we consume less energy than the body expends. A deficit of about 500 calories a day promotes a loss of about 500g of fat per week, which is quite acceptable.
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I always thought that ice cold water is really not good for the body, it should be more “normal” temperature. But for weight loss it might be true that drinking the water really cold will boost your metabolism.
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Increasing your metabolism is such a great idea in loosing weight but this is more effective when one has the willpower in doing it. Also, one must be aware on the kind of food they’re eating, if possible, one should avoid eating too much fatty and high calorie foods. Nowadays, to stay fit and healthy is very important as this will help us prevent from getting diseases like diabetes, hypertension and other diseases.
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A good check list for boosting your metabolism. Id like to echo some of the previous coments about High Intensity Interval training HIIT. I found my weight loss increased dramatically once Id discovered this tool which burns more calories in a shorter time, and lifts your metabolism for hours after! Heaps of info on the net if you need details
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I never knew abot number 7. Good to know.
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Hi,
Absolutely must exercise regularly if you want to increase your metabolism. Because of this, you should never take up an exercise program you don’t enjoy. The secret to easily burning calories and increasing muscle mass is to really love your exercise regimen. When you work out, you’ll not only lose weight, but increase your metabolic rate, as well. Keeping slim is important for staying active and healthy as well as avoiding type two diabetes.
Ben Tien´s last blog ..Weight Loss Make Easy
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